The Japanese views of robotics are a quite good example of this. While
in the Christian sphere only God can create life, and only humans have
souls, there is no such limitation in Japanese philosophy - everything
contains life and souls already. In the Christian view, the creation
of an artificial being is blasphemy, an attempt to ursup the position
of the creator. It results in a copy of a copy, a kind of warped idol
- hence the Frankenstein complex. Judaism has a slightly more
ambivalent position in the Golem myth. But the Japanese have a much
more favorable view of the creation of artificial beings, most likely
due to the more dynamist view of ensoulment (as well as various
cultural and social factors, ranging from "Atomic Boy" in the 50's to
how robotics was introduced in factories). As a roboticist I know
said, "If you want to become a roboticist, learn Japanese - they have
such a natural attitude to robots!".
Well, back to creating neural network kamis... :-)
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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